WIGITAL.spaces.live.com

Competitive Sales Assistance Resources available to Microsoft Partners

Stephen Cracknell (Sr. Marketing Manager)

What is Competitive Sales Assistance (CSA)?

CSA (Competitive Sales Assistance) is a collection of people and resources available to Partners within the United States and Canada that can help Partners in closing sales and responding to the more challenging questions and rebuttals they may face in the field while selling Microsoft products. This presentation is specifically focused on "how to engage with Microsoft" in this process.

Further Reading:

https://partner.microsoft.com/us/win

George Ferguson - Competitive Sales Assistant Manager

Our team is hear to help partners tap into Microsoft's vast array of products and partner offerings. In working with CSA (Competitive Sales Assistance) Partners can be confident they are heading into their next sales call with all of the tools we can offer them. Ultimately, our team is here to help partners win more deals and grow their business.

===COMPETITIVE MARKETING SUPPORT===

email usregcsa[at]microsoft(dot)com

CSA can help you launch a professional marketing campaign in your home town in less than an hour. Agents available to train your marketing staff and subsidize your competitive marketing efforts. Simply email usregcsa[at]microsoft(dot)com and request marketing assistance.

Re: MARKETING - George has been working with this marketing venue for over a year. Microsoft has created wizard driven touchpoints that can help you do marketing now on a full professional scale. You can import your own logo, use Microsoft materials and market to clients in areas where you have the most success, other verticals you are expanding into and even geographic areas.

Partners have found a warm reception to the mailing collateral and the peripherals they send out due to the tight integration with the overall Microsoft marketing effort already in place and the brand recognition that Microsoft already has in the marketplace.

After your marketing pieces hit the street, the CSA team can then provide technical support, tools and help partners follow up on the sale.

This is a great tool to use on a quarterly basis to increase exposure and seed the marketplace with your Partner identity.

===COMPETITIVE TRAINING===

BASELINE TRAINING
*Partners can prepare for their next competitive conversation
*Complete training and become eligible for prizes
*Earn an Electronic Diploma

NEXTWEB TRAINING SERIES
*Partners can become experts in the tools and technologies offered by Microsoft for web design and development.
*Focus of Discussions:
**Expression Design Suite
**Silverlight
**Windows Server 2008

VIRTUALIZATION SERIES
*Partners get an overview of Microsoft's Virtualization Server, Desktop and Management Offerings
*Learn to enable Virtualization Solutions across servers and desktops
*Help customers control their costs and overall infrastructure.

===COMPETITIVE SUPPORT HOTLINE===

800-426-9400
Press 1, or say "extension" then say extension "88827"
7am - 5pm CST

https://partner.microsoft.com/us/win

Competitive Sales Assistance Support provides:
*Discussion Guides on Microsoft products
*White Papers
*Powerpoint Presentations (demonstrate features, value, reliability, ROI)
*Case Studies (examples of how Microsoft products have help companies succeed)
*Links to product information

===VOICES FOR INNOVATION===

*Community Voices For Innovation helps partners stay informed on policy issues affecting your business.
*Helps partners work directly with your elected representatives.
*Helps Partners network and collaborate with peers

VFI focuses on policies that impact:
*Skilled and Educated workforce
*Security and Privacy
*Intellectual Property

Interoperability is a property referring to the ability of diverse systems and organizations to work together (inter-operate). According to Microsoft Research: For Business Customers, (after reliability, security and total cost of ownership...) interoperability is one of the key factors customers rely on to in perceiving the total concept of value in a solution.

Interoperability by Design (a Microsoft Initiative)

http://www.microsoft.com/interop

ECONOMIC, SOCIAL & TECHNICAL NEEDS IN COMMON

(who is interoperability for?)
*Individuals
*Enterprises
*Government
*IT Pros
*CIO/CTO/Information Executives

What are some of the needs expressed by the community relating to interoperability?
*Freedom of choice based on functionality and business need
* Data portability & easy flow of information
**Owners want to be in control of their data
**Owners want to be able to extract their data

* Improved efficiency & agility
**work faster
**leverage older systems
**more quickly access and leverage data

*Reducing single vendor lock-in
**Microsoft is improving in it's ability to connect to other systems and other vendors to become a cross platform company that supports other systems and vendors.

*Access to latest technology
*Strong ecosystem of to drive innovation

Interoperability results in more choice, competition, & innovation.

===INTEROPERABILITY - A HISTORY OF INTEROPERABILITY OVER TIME===

*PC's (being islands of information) begin to have interoperability between applications and the devices connected to the PC(printers, word, excel, etc...)
*PC's begin to communicate with other devices on the local area network
*PC's begin to communicate with other PC's across the Internet (xml is a key element to data exchange/interoperability on the web)
*PC's begin to share metadata using web services across a dispersed infrastructure using secure trust relationships

MICROSOFT's INTEROPERABILITY BY DESIGN INITIATIVE

Listening, innovating and providing access

*Community Engagement

*Standards Bodies
**Microsoft knows that in order to provide interoperability between products
*Innovation
**whether open source, partners or competitors, Microsoft is committed to the communication and relationships necessary to retain interoperability. A new commitment to Transparency is now being leveraged to assure interoperability with these entities such as:
***Documentation,
***API Documentation
***Binary Documentation

The new horizon of interoperability includes competitors to Microsoft such as IBM, Sun, Oracle, OpenOffice.org, Novell, Adobe

===MICROSOFT'S INTEROPERABILITY FOUNDATION===

Listening to our customers & the industry, taking pragmatic steps

Interoperability principals will be highly focused into Microsoft's six "high-volume" products which include (Vista, Windows Server, SQL Server, Exchange Server, SharePoint Server, Microsoft Office)

THE INTEROPERABILITY PRINCIPALS
*Open Connections
*Data Portability
*Enhanced Support for Standards
*Open Engagement

Bridge Building
*Support for Mixed Environments
*Solving key Customer Issues with Industry Partners
*Innovative Community Licensing
*Announcement of Windows Principals

IP Licensing, Standards Support, Protocol Licensing

===MICROSOFT INTEROPERABILITY PRINCIPALS===

*Ensuring Open Connections
*Data Portability
*Enhanced Support for Standards
*Open Engagement

These principals are most applicable in Microsoft's highest volume products.

Windows Vista
(including the .NET Framework)

Microsoft Office 2007

Windows Server 2008

Microsoft Exchange Server 2007

Microsoft SQL Server

Microsoft Office SharePoint Server 2007

===PRINCIPAL 1: Open Connections to Microsoft Products===

read more: http://msdn.microsoft.com/openprotocols

Key actions

*Open Access to APIs and Protocols (that are leveraged to communicate with our high volume products)
**Full documentation of the API's and protocols used by high-volume Microosft products available on the web for free without the need for any license

*Anyone can call the documented APIs without any need for a patent license

*Microsoft patents in these protocols will be made available on RAND terms at very low royalty rates

*Covenant not to sue open source developers for development and non-commercial distribution of implementations of these Open Protocols

*Proactive timetable
**>30k pages of documentation are already (2008-06-13) available on MSDN about WSPP, MCPP
**More documentation will be added in the coming months on the following protocols: Office 2007, .NET Framework-related, Exchange Server 2007, Office SharePoint Server 2007

Find out more at http://msdn.microsoft.com/openprotocols

To Summarize the Benefits to Microsoft Partners:

Greater opportunity & Choice
*Better integration with high-volume products
*OPEN ACCESS: More information about Microsoft patents in protocols and access to RAND licensing at low rates
*RAND PATENTS: Enables people to decide whether to work around or use Microsoft technology
*OPEN SOURCE COMPATIBILITY: Open source developers have royalty free access to patenst in protocols for development and non-commercial purposes.

===PRINCIPAL 2: Data Portability===

read more: http://www.microsoft.com/interop/docs/officebinaryformats.mspx

Key actions

*Input/Output Functionality
**Ability to extract the data in high volume products
*Use of Standardized or Published Formats
**Microsoft to use standardized or published formats to enable data portability
**Documentation of these formats available on the web for free access by anyone without a license
*Patents used identified and made available on RAND terms
*New APIs for Office 2007 enables third parties to plug in new document formats

Data portability is about empowering developers and empowering our customers to do the things that "they want to do" with their data.

Benefits of Data Portability in broad terms means support for Open Formats, Industry Standard Formats, Open Import/Export of User Data, Document Format Defaults (changeable in Microsoft applications).

Find out more at: http://www.microsoft.com/interop/docs/officebinaryformats.mspx

===PRINCIPAL 3: Standards Support===

read more: http://www.microsoft.com/standards

Key Actions:

*Microsoft intends to use developer feedback and customer input to determine which standards (open source/web/commercial) it supports.

*Open Access to standards documentation on the web
**Open Access to standards documentation on web
**List of key standards supported in high-volume products
**Documentation of how those standards are supported available on the web
** Extensions related to interoperability with other implementations fully documented
*Identify patents in extensions and RAND licensing of them
*Standards support consistent with principles

Enhanced standard support benefits users and companies by providing Support for Key Standards, Industry Compatibility, Open Documentation on Extensions, Open Access

NOTES ABOUT OFFICE OPEN XML:
the work with OpenXML (now an ISO standard) is one of Microsoft's key pushes within Standards Bodies. Microsoft intends on letting the market, users, and the community determine how OpenXML is developed and leveraged in the future.

further reading:
http://www.microsoft.com/presspass/press/2008/feb08/02-21ConCallTranscript.mspx

Enhanced Standards in Identity Management
http://www.brreg.no/porvoo13/
http://www.brreg.no/porvoo13/documents/digital_id_craig_wittenberg.pdf

===PRINCIPAL 4: Engagement with Open Communities===

read more: http://www.microsoft.com/interop/forum

Key Actions

*Open discussions about interoperability issues of importance

*Open Source Interoperability Initiative
**Promote engagement with open source communities
**Broad range of activities, facilities and opportunities

*Interoperability forum
*Web-based forum to discuss interoperability topics

*Document Interoperability Initiative
*Collaboration among vendors to drive real-world progress towards interoperability between document format implementations
*Events in Boston, Korea and Europe, with more to come

In a broad sense, Microsoft is at long last asking the open source development community to join in the conversation by fully supporting and Open Source Interoperability Initiative, hosting an Interoperability Forum, and attempting to fully Document the Interoperability Initiative so as to provide an openly available resource to the community from which to reference this progress.

TAKING ACTION TO IMPROVE INTEROPERABILITY

Open Connections to key Microsoft Products
*High Volume Products APIs & Protocols
**products include: Vista, Windows Server, SQL Server, Exchange Server, SharePoint Server, Microsoft Office

Data Portability
*Input/Output Support
*Format Documentation
*API's for default format

Standards Support
*Community Input on which Standards are used and developed in Microsoft products
*Open Access to Standards Used

Engagement with Open Communities
*Interop Executive Customer Council
*Interop Vendor Alliance
*Open Source Interop Initiative
*Document Interop Initiative
*Interop Forum

EXAMPLES OF COLLABORATION TAKING PLACE NOW!

Sun microsystems
*Technical Collaboration
**both companies will provide access to aspects of each companies server technologies
**ensure that information can be easily shared between most important protocols such as Active Directory and System Identity Server
*Interoperability Lab (announced 2008-03)
*Microsoft Communications Protocol Program
*windows Certification for Sun Server
**Windows is now certified for Sun Server
*Future Collaboration of Java and .NET
*Patents and IP
**both organizations are able to license each others technologies or work around the patents
*Legal Settlements
**both companies are moving quickly to settle any legal issues currently active

*Interoperability Agreement
**Open XML/Open Document
**Novell has released a translator for Open Document Format and Open XML
**Translator available on sourceforge.org
*Interoperabilty Lab
**Both companies are sharing a lab to optimize products between the companies
*Accessibility Agreements
*Patent Agreement
**users that are leveraging SUSE Linux are provided indemnification from Microsoft patents from the business perspective
*Business Collaboration Agreement
**example: Microsoft's Hyper-V supports Novell SUSE Linux. Novell in return is supporting Windows Server 2008 in Novell's HyperVisor technology.

Learning how to market in my neighborhood.

I spent the morning and early afternoon yesterday door knocking at businesses in my neighborhood. (92860 United States). It was a very hot day, more precisely 100+ degrees. Fortunately I received some goodwill in the form of a bottles of water from some of the prospects I solicited. All in all, a very enjoyable day.

So why was it interesting? Norco is a unique city in California. It is a small town culture in the big metropolitan area of Los Angeles. Known as Horse Town USA, Norco has gained this moniker because of the density of horses owned and it's history as an equestrian center, Norco still exudes the small town feel in a big town southern California.

What I learned from walking around is that I can walk through the front door of a business in Norco and just say hello... yes, still just say hello these days :). I learned that Norco is unique enough to require me to provide more locale in my marketing pieces for the city. I learned that people can still be friendly on a cold call (maybe only in Norco LOL) if you're open and honest about why you're visting (hi my name is Mark and I'm a Computer Guy).

Some things I need to do to market better in Norco:

• build Norco specific marketing
  • inform prospects that we're in Norco
  • include Norco symbols (horses, wagon wheels) on print
• emphasize repair and upgrades over Network systems
  • observed computer use less than 10 units per site (often less than 5)
• identify larger computer use prospects and build seperate marketing for them based on broader SMB offerings
• more....

Things I did well yesterday

• I was friendly
• I was able to make direct contacts with business owners
• When I did not make direct contact with business owners, I was able to get their card or their name for followup
  • This is something unique to door knocking (do not find this to be generally true by phone)
• more...

Things I can do better

• get email addresses
  • a lot of local businesses do not put their email addresses on business cards
• use the opportunities with the owners to build more repoirte
  • it occured to me that in the spirit of goodwill, I might ask local business owners/managers this questions: How can I better market my Computer/Network business here in Norco? I believe this is a beneficial question for three reasons
    • 1 it's a sincere question
    • 2 it draws them in and asks them to take an interest in me and my company (WIGITAL)
    • 3 it goes directly to the source to ask:
      • How do you want to be reached?
      • What do you want to be asked?
      • What are your needs?
      • What will you respond to?
      • What information is useful to you?
• It also occurs to me that I should be asking better questions to profile these potential clients more accurately such as:
  • how many computers do you use in your business?
  • do you use a Server?
  • do you have a web presence?
  • do you use a company branded email domain?
  • do you have a firewall?
  • what is your backup solution?
• more to follow....

I'll report back and journal more in another weblog.